On Tuesday, December 5th, at 2 pm EST, Bluefin P2PE partner, Nelnet Campus Commerce, will host an educational webinar in conjunction with University Business on “Battling the Data Breach Epidemic: Securing your Campus.” The webinar will discuss the data breach epidemic in higher education and how technologies like PCI-Validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) are helping to secure campus payment data more effectively.

Times have changed from the days when tuition or dining plan payments were physically mailed to universities and colleges. Today’s parents and students are accustomed to the convenience of paying for tuition, athletic tickets, books and even meal plans with their credit or debit cards in-person, over the phone or online.

The shift to cashless payments is now broadly accepted in educational institutions, from the bursar’s office to the cafeteria, and cybercriminals have found themselves a new favorite target within the payment networks of colleges and universities.

According to Gemalto’s Breach Level Index, in 2016 there were 157 data breaches in education. The leading cause – 60% of the breaches – was malicious software (malware). And, the first half of 2017 shows that breaches are not slowing down, as Gemalto’s new edition features a 13% increase in data breaches from the last half of 2016, and a 164% increase in stolen, lost or compromised records.

Nelnet Campus Commerce’s webinar will feature Daryl Robinson, Nelnet’s Director of Product Development & Strategy, and Bluefin’s Chief Strategy Officer, Ruston Miles, discussing the Devalue the Data approach that universities and educational institutions can employ with PCI P2PE, a security technology that encrypts card data immediately upon swipe or dip in the payment terminal, rendering the data useless to hackers if it is exposed.

Nelnet specializes in providing powerful payment processing solutions for over 900 higher education institutions across the U.S. The company partnered with Bluefin in 2017 to provide PCI P2PE directly through Nelnet’s payment technology, enhancing security and reducing PCI scope with no change to the payment transaction flow.

The webinar will provide a detailed overview on the state of data breaches, current payment security technologies, the role of PCI-validated P2PE in protecting card data, validated vs. non-validated solutions, and the scope reduction and cost savings of PCI P2PE.